Family Matters
by AR527
Summary: Ruby decides it's time to settle the debate, once and for all!


A crimson flash tore through the corridors, knocking everyone out of its path, the only clue to the nature of this speeding bullet was the sound it left behind; "WEISSWEISSWEISSWEISSWEISS!"

This bullet was, as you expect, none other than Ruby Rose. Seeking out her partner, an action that was assumed as the most important thing in the world, shown by how desperate she was to find her. She was so desperate to find her partner in fact, that when she ran into her, it was more in a literal fashion, than an actual metaphor. The two came to a rolling stop, before Weiss angrily began to berate Ruby for her childish behavior.

"What in Remnant could have possibly possessed you for you to need to travel at that speed, inside no less!?" Weiss demanded, brushing off her clothes, praying there was no damage to them.

"Uh, well... I was looking for you?" came the sheepish answer, Ruby scratching her head.

"Well, now you've found me so, what is it that you required me so urgently for?"

"Uh, hmm, what was it again? Oh yeah! It's time to attend to unfinished business! I, Ruby Rose, challenge you, Weiss Schnee, to a duel!" the leader exclaimed with an over-exaggerated flourish, even jumping to add emphasis.

"Wait what? Is that all you wanted me for?!" Weiss cocked her head at the revelation, both confused and shocked at the response, "Well I am sorry Ruby, but I will have to decline your duel, I have important matters to attend to," was the only response to the idea of the duel. "In fact, here comes Winter now, I will speak to you later Ruby," Weiss said as she took her leave to meet her sister, who was approaching them from down the corridor.

"Weiss" Winter asked as she approached them, "Would I be correct in assuming that this young lady here is related to that upstart Qrow?" Her question was met with a nod from Weiss. "I thought as much, as much as it might pain you to do so you must uphold the family name, if only to show that we are better than that drunkard, as I was interrupted before I could finish with him."

"Wha- Wha- What? You want to fight now?" Weiss stuttered, turning towards her sister "I thought you were insistent on us speaking in private!"

"I am and we will do so, yet this issue has arisen and in this way I can help you in person, giving you advice should you need it." Was the response that greeted Weiss

"Fine, but when I win, you WILL tell father of it, and you WILL attempt to try to reconnect me with my monthly allowance"

"How dare you use that tone with me? I should strike you where you stand, but..." Winter took a pause to think, "IF, and that is a major if, if you win I will see what I can do." Winter replied with a small sigh, "But for now, let us see about your duel follow me, I will lead the way..." and with that, hands behind her back, head held high, she strutted forwards, leading their small party to the nearest open space.

* * *

"Winter, why are we outside? There are perfectly good sparring grounds, just around the corner" Weiss queried as the party came to a halt in a half shaded clearing down in the grounds, the ground was covered with a blanket of green grass, soft to the touch, yet not soft enough to offer protection from a fall.

"If you spent your entire life training in an enclosed arena, then how would you ever learn to fight in the world around you? You can't expect to be able face every enemy in an enclosed space," Winter said in response, "And besides, if you really are top of your combat class as you claim to be, a little change in scenery shouldn't affect you to much!"

"I guess, I really don't mind, it's just I thought you may have wanted to do this in a controlled environment to gauge how well I am really doing," the younger sister stated, as she walked into a position opposite from Ruby, who had turned to face her and drawn Crescent Rose, the tip of which now rested in the ground safely. "You ready Ruby?" She asked, drawing Myrtenaster from its sheathe and taking a stance to signal her readiness to begin the fight. Ruby took her weapon out of the dirt to signal her readiness as well.

Winter, who was taking control for the fight, said her final words before the fight began, "Alright, first to bring their opponents aura levels in to the red is the victor, I have synced up both of you scrolls to mine so I can observe and call the fight, apart from that, anything goes, good luck girls, you may commence in 3... 2... 1... begin!" with this line Winter stepped out of the picture to allow the two girls a better view of each other, and so as not to interrupt their fight.

The words had barely been uttered when Ruby surged towards Weiss, a shot from Crescent Rose adding to her already enhanced speed, swinging her scythe around almost as if to slice her in half from shoulder to hip, at such a speed that Weiss barely had time to throw up a wall of ice with a swing of her sword to block it. The blade shattered the ice instantly, although the force of the blow was enough to cancel out all of the momentum that Ruby had accumulated, leaving her open to a counterattack. Weiss went in for an attack on the seemingly defenceless Ruby, yet upon lunging towards her she found she had misjudged her attack, forgetting about the recently formed ice on the ground, she ended up lunging past her opponent, merely glancing off of her blade and exposing her back to attack.

"Poor form Weiss, never let your opponent get the first move, it puts you on the defensive too soon," Winter interjected, "And a sloppy follow up attack too, always ensure you make the most of every opportunity!"

"I know what I'm doing Winter!" Weiss retorted angrily turning towards her sister, "I don't need your help, I've learned a lot in our seperation!"

"You should listen to your sister Weiss, after all, she did _almost_ beat uncle Qrow in a fight!" Ruby said as she backed up, trying to put some distance between her and Weiss, knowing she would come off worse in a close quarters scenario. Weiss was evidently thinking along the same lines as she used another ice dust wall, this time preventing Ruby backing up any further by blocking her path, taking advantage of her now trapped opponent she lunged forward hoping to get a hit off and gain the upper hand. She had not stopped to consider however, that Ruby was expecting her to do this, let alone that she might actually have thought up a plan, so, naturally, she was caught fully off guard when Ruby swung Crescent Rose at her in it's gun form. The impact of the blunt weapon, combined with her own momentum caused the poor heiress to once again be knocked off balance, although this time the consequences were slightly more severe, with Weiss' momentum being enough to throw her straight into the wall she herself had formed earlier.

"WEISS! You must focus, do not allow your emotions to cloud your vision, you must remain calm and collected during a fight" was Winter's only comment on the fight, trying to remain as formal as she could, whilst still helping her sister.

"Wait, isn't anger an emotion? Like when you fought uncle Qrow and went all cuckoo?"Ruby chimed in, earning her a stare from the older lady, who was now starting to get annoyed with this young girl in front of her.

Once again, the young heiress arose and brushed herself off, taking up a stance that looked vaguely offensive, though what she was about to do next, not even Winter could predict. With the wave of a hand, and a small amount of concentration, a line of speed glyphs appeared, filling the gap between her and Ruby. Placing one foot behind the other she lean back, trying to gain as much momentum for when she lunged forwards, accelerating at a phenomenal rate, closing the distance extremely rapidly. The unfortunate target saw this happen, and immediately came up with a plan, turning on the spot she made use of the premade speed glyphs that Weiss had made, on top of her own semblance enhanced speed AND extra propulsion granted from the recoil of her precious weapon. The duo dashed around the clearing, Ruby ahead all the while, until suddenly, she began to stumble. She regained her composure but noticed she had lost a major portion of her speed, in fact, she was back to normal levels, well, normal for her anyways. It wasn't until she turned around that she found out why. It had turned out that Weiss was no longer on the ground, having elevated herself to a position from off the ground whilst simultaneously maintaining her speed and she was now spinning the dust chamber in her rapier, getting ready for an attack.

Although unable to see exactly what the chamber landed on, Ruby was soon to find out exactly what was loaded, as a mini tornado formed, running parallel to her for a short period of time, before it spiraled off towards her. Their paths crossed, and the wind came off better, with Ruby getting thrown sideways, her legs taken out from under her, heading for a small patch of trees that did not look friendly. With a bit of quick thinking Crescent Rose was transformed into scythe form and hooked around a particularly low hanging branch. With her previous momentum, the scythe was able to swing her around the branch, and in one swift movement the blade was unhooked, and Ruby was heading back the way she came, straight towards Weiss, and with a few shots for extra propulsion she was soon on a collision course with her floating adversary, ready to strike her from with an air to air collision. The collision itself knocked the pair of them out of the air, Ruby landing with a small tuck and roll, springing back on to her feet, ready for the next move of the fight.

"Oh come on Weiss! At least make this a bit of a challenge!" she said, shaking her head whilst watching Weiss roll across the grounds in front of her, coming to a stop a little bit away from her, "You're supposed to be helping me prove my we're better than you, not just get beat up! Put a little bit of effort into it, make it look good, like you're sister did before Qrow won their fight!"

This was the final straw for Winter. Try as she might to hold her composure, this child, this 'team leader' in front of her had the confidence to stand up, and actively mock her, and more importantly, her sister in front of her. Rage overcame her again as she drew her blade and turned towards the as of yet unharmed girl in front of her. She channeled her semblance, forming a glyph behind her, preparing to use it to lunge forwards at the girl in front of her. Ruby saw this happening and buried the tip of Crescent Rose into the dirt, loaded a fresh magazine into it and opened fire at Winter. Unable to block them the first few shots connected with her, causing her to lose focus and take a step back. Before she could react defensively though, a glyph materialized in front of her, intercepting the shots before they could hit her.

Ruby was surprised to see Weiss back on her feet, concentrating fully on summoning a glyph to block her shots. Ruby refocused her efforts at the sight of this, switching between sister to sister, trying to get a shot in that wasn't blocked by this glyph that seemed to move to predict the shots she fired. She was getting so frustrated with this she failed to notice the small army of flying birds that Winter had amassed using a glyph. They were circling around her, growing in number, preparing for the perfect moment to fly straight at her, and when that moment came, they did not miss it. Straight at Ruby they flew, moving as one, grouping together for maximum effect. Ruby looked at the scythe in her hands and knew that there was no way that she could block this attack, so she shut her eyes, and the last thing she saw, was an angry flock of birds headed her way...

Seconds past and her world shook. She opened her eyes to the sight of the birds disintegrating at her feet, she was confused at first, until she felt the air rush past her and saw Yang sprint past, reloading her weapon. Ruby realised in that instant that Yang must have destroyed the birds with an explosive round saving her from having to take the hits, but, how did Yang know where they were? She was answered by Yang not a minute after she thought this, when Yang challenged Winter.

"HOW DARE YOU ATTACK SOMEONE YOUNGER THAN YOU, WHEN SHE HAD DONE NOTHING AGAINST YOU! IF I HADN'T SEEN THE LIGHT FROM ALL THESE GLYPHS OF YOURS AND SAVED HER SHE COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!" Yang yelled as she swung a fist at Winter, using all the speed she had picked up in an attempt to end the fight before it began, but once again, Weiss cast a glyph in front of her sister to protect her. The glyph shattered from the force causing Weiss to lose concentration for a second, and in that second Ruby dashed towards her, hoping to score a hit on the already weakened Weiss. Weiss was ready for this however and using another air dust crystal she created a small tornado directly at Ruby to keep her at bay, slowing her down substantially. Ruby however just piled on more speed and with every step closer to the heiress, every Weiss took back, she seemed to be gaining on her. After what seemed like an age Ruby finally reached Weiss, she brought back her scythe, ready to swing, when suddenly Weiss was gone, pulled out of the way by Winter who now stood in her way, letting Weiss recover for a second.

Ruby shot forward, nothing countering her speed now and as she did Winter tripped her, causing her to go tumbling into the nearby trees with no way of regaining control until she came to a complete stop. She climbed to her feet and turned to see Winter flying at her, sword outstretched ready to impale her on it. Thinking fast she dug Crescent Rose into the ground and used it as a pivot to spin round and kick the oncoming blade away, but hitting something that fast with a kick is not without consequences and Ruby felt the impact of the blow significantly. She fell back, Winter walking over slowly, her second blade deployed ready to finish her off when suddenly she was knocked over by a flying Weiss, curtesy of her sister Yang.

With the pair knocked down temporarily Ruby and Yang locked eyes and nodded. Ruby got to her feet and hooked her blade around a branch above her, using her speed and shots to spin round repeatedly, gaining speed wit every rotation, before Yang sprinted forward, leapt, and with incredible precision grabbed Ruby, letting go when she was at the peak throwing herself into the air. She flew as high as she could, using recoil to propel her higher, before falling straight at the Schnees propelling herself down with even more shots until she reached a speed that would be fatal to most. At the last second Winter threw up a glyph to save herself, the impact of the collision causing a shock wave that knocked the leaves off every tree in a mile radius. When all was settled a crater could be seen, Yang standing at the bottom, facing Winter, with a pair of unconscious youngsters at their feet.

"I guess we should have gone a bit easier huh?" Yang said, "I honestly didn't expect such a big explosion, we should have thought about giving them some form of protection..."

"Well I wasn't expecting such a devastating move from one so young. But enough, we should get these two to the infirmary." Was Winter's reply as she scooped up Weiss and carried her off, Yang doing the same by her side.

"Well, I guess one might say I ended that fight, with a YANG? Eh? EH?"

"No, just shut up and walk!"

"You're no fun..."


End file.
